Correspondence during Lucid Dreams between Dreamed and Actual Events

Abstract

Previous research (Fenwick et al., 1984; Hearne, 1978; LaBerge, Nagel, Dement, & Zarcone, 1981; LaBerge, 1985) has shown that, during REM sleep, certain subjects can signal that they are dreaming lucidly by means of volitional eye movements (recorded by the electro-oculogram) and forearm muscle contractions (recorded by the electromyogram). If confirmed, these results suggest the possibility of a new method for examining experimentally the long-standing assumption that a dream report of a subject awakened from REM sleep corresponds to what the subject really dreamed. These results suggest, too, that if, while dreaming lucidly, a subject can perceive external sensory stimuli and, in response to them, can signal volitionally—thereby in effect engaging in two-way communication—then the ability in dreams to perceive incoming stimuli and respond to them (for example, by counting them) could be experimentally examined. Our experiments were designed to provide data relevant to these issues and, further, to explore the relationship in lucid dreams between the dream body and the physical body.